The third essay proposes that the condition of human dependency and self-estrangement at the dining table. Otherwise incommensurable matters (mineral, vegetable, and animal) are incorporated at ...
More

The third essay proposes that the condition of human dependency and self-estrangement at the dining table. Otherwise incommensurable matters (mineral, vegetable, and animal) are incorporated at mealtime. Conduct literature trains the young to become deeply involved in the material medium, and romance and allegory is equally invested in the objective mess.Less

The Mess

J. Allan Mitchell

Published in print: 2014-05-01

The third essay proposes that the condition of human dependency and self-estrangement at the dining table. Otherwise incommensurable matters (mineral, vegetable, and animal) are incorporated at mealtime. Conduct literature trains the young to become deeply involved in the material medium, and romance and allegory is equally invested in the objective mess.

A provocative historical inquiry into human becoming, this book consists of a set of idiosyncratic essays on embryology and infancy, play and games, manners, meals, and other messes. Inspecting a ...
More

A provocative historical inquiry into human becoming, this book consists of a set of idiosyncratic essays on embryology and infancy, play and games, manners, meals, and other messes. Inspecting a wide range of textual, visual, and artefactual evidence in and beyond medieval England, Mitchell argues that humanity issued from a dense material matrix that is barely human. Congeries of animate and inanimate objects expose the extent to which the human learned to dwell among a welter of things. Becoming (ontogeny) turns out to be a better category than being (ontology) for capturing the conjugated modes of existence required for sustaining life at various scales. While Mitchell makes important contributions to medieval scholarship on the body, sexuality, family, medicine, and material culture, his work is also in dialogue with recent developments in the posthumanities. The book theorizes what can be called a medieval ecological imaginary, offering a longer historical perspective on the fate of the human than is usually found in modern discussions. Mitchell returns to early understandings of epigenesis, virtuality, natality, chaos, animation, and cosmogony to trace the inheritance of modern speculative and scientific notions usually considered in isolation from the past. He explores a broad array of phenomenal objects, and in the process rediscovers and reanimates distinctly medieval ontologies. In addressing the emergency of the human in the later Middle Ages, Mitchell identifies ideas of becoming in the past where humanity is and remains at risk.Less

Becoming Human : The Matter of the Medieval Child

J. Allan Mitchell

Published in print: 2014-05-01

A provocative historical inquiry into human becoming, this book consists of a set of idiosyncratic essays on embryology and infancy, play and games, manners, meals, and other messes. Inspecting a wide range of textual, visual, and artefactual evidence in and beyond medieval England, Mitchell argues that humanity issued from a dense material matrix that is barely human. Congeries of animate and inanimate objects expose the extent to which the human learned to dwell among a welter of things. Becoming (ontogeny) turns out to be a better category than being (ontology) for capturing the conjugated modes of existence required for sustaining life at various scales. While Mitchell makes important contributions to medieval scholarship on the body, sexuality, family, medicine, and material culture, his work is also in dialogue with recent developments in the posthumanities. The book theorizes what can be called a medieval ecological imaginary, offering a longer historical perspective on the fate of the human than is usually found in modern discussions. Mitchell returns to early understandings of epigenesis, virtuality, natality, chaos, animation, and cosmogony to trace the inheritance of modern speculative and scientific notions usually considered in isolation from the past. He explores a broad array of phenomenal objects, and in the process rediscovers and reanimates distinctly medieval ontologies. In addressing the emergency of the human in the later Middle Ages, Mitchell identifies ideas of becoming in the past where humanity is and remains at risk.

The first essay examines narratives of gestation and growth in medieval medical science, natural philosophy, zoology, and cosmology. Mitchell argues that embryology and infancy enable an exigent ...
More

The first essay examines narratives of gestation and growth in medieval medical science, natural philosophy, zoology, and cosmology. Mitchell argues that embryology and infancy enable an exigent critique of human self-sufficiency. Likewise, dream visions and love allegories deploy infancy and childishness in ways that question the autonomy and agency of the human.Less

Being Born

J. Allan Mitchell

Published in print: 2014-05-01

The first essay examines narratives of gestation and growth in medieval medical science, natural philosophy, zoology, and cosmology. Mitchell argues that embryology and infancy enable an exigent critique of human self-sufficiency. Likewise, dream visions and love allegories deploy infancy and childishness in ways that question the autonomy and agency of the human.

The second essay takes up both physical and literary examples of childish things. The anarchic forces of miniature matters are palpable even as such small-scale things articulate with human fantasy. ...
More

The second essay takes up both physical and literary examples of childish things. The anarchic forces of miniature matters are palpable even as such small-scale things articulate with human fantasy. Mitchell also explores literary miniaturization in Geoffrey Chaucer and Thomas Usk.Less

Childish Things

J. Allan Mitchell

Published in print: 2014-05-01

The second essay takes up both physical and literary examples of childish things. The anarchic forces of miniature matters are palpable even as such small-scale things articulate with human fantasy. Mitchell also explores literary miniaturization in Geoffrey Chaucer and Thomas Usk.